Leaders in Business: 08.26.07

CORPUS CHRISTI - What are your responsibilities at WorkSource? How many people do you oversee? How long have you been in the position?

My responsibilities are to assist my board of directors in developing and implementing their vision for the organization. Our chief role is to develop a strategic plan for the service delivery of the public workforce system. With this comes fiscal responsibility and oversight and high-level strategic planning. I am also responsible for leading a team of professionals who design and contract programs to benefit our customers (jobseekers, employers, youth services and child care assistance) throughout the 12-county Coastal Bend region. We contract approximately $20 million in annual funding to service providers. We have 30 board administration staff and approximately 150 contract staff. I've been at WorkSource for two and a half years.

What do your managers need to do to succeed? How do you measure them?

I believe the core needs of any staff are direction, support, adequate compensation and, most important, to let them do their jobs. I measure the success of my managers by working together to develop goals, and they are individually measured on the attainment of those goals. My job is to make sure my staff has the resources to do their jobs as well as remove any barriers that may impede their success.

If you got to choose your replacement, what would you look for, and what advice would you give?

It is important to me to consistently improve an organization and continually strive for excellence. Those things cannot be accomplished without human capital. I would look for an individual who is grounded, flexible and visionary. A significant characteristic would be that he or she be entrepreneurial in spirit and skill. Life experience is also important; someone who has faced adversity and difficult times and overcome them should have the resolve to tackle the challenges that come with this position. My advice would be when you are in a position where you serve a board, council or other governance body, it is important to stay on top of your game because you never know when it will be your last day. Give it 150 percent every day.

What was the worst mistake of your career and what did you learn from it?

Trusting the wrong person. I learned that it wasn't personal and to forgive and forget.

Describe the biggest victory of your career.

I have been fortunate to have many successes, and I am having a hard time singling one out because all of my career victories have been shared victories. I am not solely responsible for any of them. I have always had help. But if you ask what is the single best move I ever made to further my career, I guess it would be involving my husband in the career decisions we have made. We are total opposites, from our educational attainment to choice of restaurants; he holds his own and he is definitely a man's man. He is my biggest fan, confidant and supporter. I have seen many Hispanic women make the mistake of trying to make their significant other conform to their careers and it is totally unnecessary. Respect is one of the highest values in our culture and work is one of the highest values to the Hispanic male; it is important we recognize it as we progress in our careers.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? How close did you come?

I am doing exactly what I thought I would be doing when I was a kid. I didn't know what field I would be in but I always knew I wanted to be in charge of something. I was pretty rebellious -- imagine that -- and I just knew I wanted to get away from the small rural town I was working in and wanted to get out of the heat; we always worked outside in the summer. But now that I am working in the city out of the heat in the corner office, a job at a bank in a small rural town sounds pretty good some days.

What is the best lesson in life and work that you learned from a favorite movie or television show?

My favorite movie is "The Color Purple" and the best lesson in life it conveys is that family is the most important thing in the world.